Insurance Europe has published its response to a consultation conducted by the European Commission on its inception impact assessment regarding the review of Solvency II, the regulatory framework that governs EU insurers.

ANO - The Montenegrin Insurance Supervision Agency announced that on August 26, 2020, the Council has issued the Decision on appropval to the Austrian group GRAZER Wechselseitige Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft to buy the majority stake in SWISS Insurance Company.

After a series of debades on the way a driver can prove the alidity of MTPL policy, on August 26^th, the Council of the Romanian Financial Supervision Authority approved the changes and amended the Norm no 20/2017 on MTPL insurance in Romania.

The Romanian insurance market had an evolution above expectations in the first half of 2020, exceeding the threshold of RON 6 billion, said Cristian ROSU, Vice President on Insurance - Reinsurance, FSA (Financial Supervisory Authority), wrote www.1asig.ro here.

At the end of July 2020, the Hungarian insurer CIG Pannonia annoucned that that employment of the CEO - Gabriella KADAR and Deputy CEO - Miklos BARTA of the company - will end on September 30, 2020.

SBERBANK Insurance took the first place in the category "Technological implementation/solution of an insurance company" of the annual award in the field of innovations and achievements of the financial industry FINAWARD'19.

The 7th Annual Insurance Business Forum "Challenges of the year 2020" will be held on October 19-22, 2020. The main objective of the event is to provide an opportunity for specialized specialists to get up-to-date information, jointly discuss the most important issues of the industry, exchange ideas and practical experience.

Aon and Willis Towers Watson - WTW announced that their respective shareholders voted "FOR" all proposals at their respective extraordinary general meetings and at the special meeting of Willis Towers Watson shareholders ordered by the High Court of Ireland. These approvals are an important step in the process of combining the two companies.

Slovene re/insurance group SAVA announced it intends to send a notification to the Insurance Supervision Agency declaring its intention to pay out dividends in respect of 2019.

SCOR announces that Olivier GAY has been appointed Senior Vice President - Chief Underwriting Officer for SCOR Canada Reinsurance Company. He will also serve as Deputy CEO of the Company.

The 20^th edition of the Romanian Insurance Market Awards Gala took place on Wednesday, 26 August, in an original format, which focused on maintaining all the safety requirements imposed by the threat of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The traditional event, organized yearly by XPRIMM, celebrates the best results of the local insurance companies, as well as the most innovative products and the best insurance professionals activating on the Romanian market.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to reduce global macroeconomic resilience by about 20% in 2020 from 2019 levels as stimulus packages deplete countries' fiscal and monetary buffers around the world, the latest annual Swiss Re Institute resilience indexes report show.

Vienna Insurance Group ended the first six months of 2020 with a financial result (including the result from at equity consolidated companies) in amount of EUR 388 million (-8.3% year-on-year). The result before taxes was EUR 201 million (-21.8%), while the net result was EUR 126 million (-16.3%).

VIG Re, a reinsurance branch of Vienna Insurance Group, ended the first half of 2020 with a net profit of EUR 7.9 million, 23% lower when compared to the same period of 2019. The profit before tax was around EUR 10.2 million, 19% less year-on-year.

Carmen Daniela RADU was appointed by the Financial Supervisory Authority for a second five years term as President of the Council of Administration at The Policyholders Guarantee Fund (FGA). Her mandate will start on August 27, 2020.

In 1H2020, GWP under voluntary health insurance amounted to KZT 22.2 billon (~EUR 49 million*), which is 7% more y-o-y. The share of the class in voluntary personal insurance reached 22.1%. At the same time, paid claims under voluntary health insurance decreased by 15.2%, to KZT 10.3 billion, Allinsurance.kz reports.

The agricultural risks insurance program was launched in Armenia in September 2019 and already has shown its effectiveness, exceeding the expectations of insurers, according to Levon KOCHARYAN, specialist in agroinsurance and Head of the Underwriting department at INGO Armenia, ArmInfo reports.

According to the results of 1H2020, the Moldovan insurance market decreased by 18.53%, to MDL 626.88 million (~EUR 32.24 million*), mainly due to the decline of the non-life sector, while life insurance, on the contrary, recorded GWP increase by 9.8%, as the data published by the National Commission of Financial Market show.

Lithuanian insurers reported GWP of EUR 470.48 million in 1H 2020, 0.29% more y-o-y, according to the half-year figures published on the Central Bank's website.

Estonian insurers reported H1 2020 GWP of EUR 235.79 million, 5.49% less compared with January-June 2019, according to the market figures published by the Estonian National Statistics Board.